ABC Takes Friday Night Over Other Networks' Special Programming

With its 8-9pm comedies (Last Man Standing/Malibu Country), a repeat Shark Tank and 20/20, ABC qualified as the most-watched network overall on Friday and led the pack in Adults 18-49 for the 4th week in a row, beating CBS by 27%, NBC by 40% and Fox by 100%.

At 8pm, ABC's Last Man Standing finished a strong second to CBS' special Frosty the Snowman, beating out by wide margins specials on both NBC (National Dog Show) and Fox (Happiness is a Warm Blanket CB).

Despite airing on the holiday weekend, Last Man Standing retained 100% of its Adult 18-49 delivery week to week.

At 8:30pm, ABC's Malibu Country moved ahead of CBS' Frosty Returns special to stand as the most-watched TV show in its half-hour.

Malibu Country retained all of its Adult 18-49 lead-in from Last Man Standing and held 100% of its young adult audience from the prior week.

Jumping over its lead-in, ABC's 20/20 ranked as the #1 TV show in 10 o'clock hour in Total Viewers, Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54. In the hour, the ABC newsmagazine dominated NBC's Dateline in head-to-head competition by 1.1 million viewers, by 50% in Adults 18-49 and by 50% in Adults 25-54. 20/20 was up week to week in both Adults 18-49 (+7%) and Adults 25-54 (+5%).

ABC's 20/20 increased sharply over its year-ago performance in Total Viewers (+16%), Adults 18-49 (+25%) and Adults 25-54 (+24%). In fact, the show was up year to year in the key Adult 25-54 news demo for its 5th straight telecast.